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Actes d’Individualite, Part Deux

These last several months I’ve gotten distracted with other activities and obligations, which means my genealogy work got moved into the guilt pile of neglected projects I no longer made time for. Well, thank goodness I was invited to present at the Discover Your Roots conference again this year. Just as it did last year, being forced to immerse myself in the details of my research re-ignited the flame, so I’m back!!!

Up to this point, my most exciting and promising finds have been concerning my maternal grandfather’s Cadignan ancestors from Francois, Martinique. In a previous post I had described the online odyssey that led to the discovery of records listing slaves freed after the emancipation decree of 1848. With just the click of a few buttons 15 Cadignans revealed themselves – and every one of them listed Francois as their birthplace and residence.

It took quite some time, but I deciphered the old French handwriting in the actes to the best of my ability and entered the information into this table. I was also able to draw up two family trees based on the information in the actes.

Every discovery leads to new knowledge – and more questions. These are the main answers I seek in regard to the actes d’individualite.

Are the Jean Maries of actes 553 and 1487 the same person? (I’m pretty sure they are.)

Are Gertrude and her children related to the other Cadignans, or did the enumerator arbitrarily give two distinct families the surname of Cadignan?

It’s very likely that one of these Cadignans is a direct ancestor of mine. My great-grandmother Josephine’s estimated year of birth is 1891, which could mean one of these Cadignans was her grandparent (or parent?)…but who?!